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TWENTY years ago, or thereby, a small society, con- 

 sisting chiefly of members of Parliament and Roya i and 

 a few journalists from the gallery, set about A 110161111 ' 

 organising a golf club and obtaining suitable ground 

 for links in a suburban district. At that time, if I 

 remember aright, there were but two courses in the 

 neighbourhood of London, to wit, Blackheath and 

 Wimbledon Common. We had the option of securing 

 on favourable terms the freehold of a pretty country 

 house with ample scope for our purpose in the park 

 surrounding it, whereof the proprietor, having decided 

 to surrender all outside the demesne to be built upon, 

 thereby destroying his own seclusion, desired to enhance 

 its value by keeping the park as an open space for the 

 greater amenity of the neighbourhood. 



It was a radiant opportunity for the nascent club. 

 The mansion-house would have made an ideal club- 

 house, and the undulating park which it crowned, with 

 scattered gorse bushes, required little labour to develop 

 into an admirable links. 



Yet we hesitated. To justify the venture we required 

 assurance of at least one hundred members; there 



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